


Touchstone

by Falt



Category: Vampire: The Masquerade
Genre: Consensual Kissing, Consent is Sexy, F/M, Non Consensual Kissing, Strauss is a bitch, everything here is mild, mild violence, nothing is explicit I promise, wild speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-13
Updated: 2019-06-13
Packaged: 2020-05-02 13:19:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19199653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Falt/pseuds/Falt
Summary: Various spoilers for several episodes, but mostly Season 3: Episode 2.Alternate too-long title: Three times men touched Eva without her consent and one time they had permission





	Touchstone

**Author's Note:**

> I'm actually proud of this one, guys  
> Dedicated to all the other lovely vamily members generating content here and elsewhere

The first time was when she was a young, human girl, just barely fourteen, picking herbs in forest bordering her family’s farm on the outskirts of town. The farmhouse is out of sight, but Eva grew up here, playing amongst the trees with her brother, crafting crowns of flowers picked from sunny glades, tramping through the ankle-high creek that winds its way through the brush, talking with the birds who nest in the springtime. She could never be lost. It’s quiet and solitary, and she hums softly to herself.

She startles when a branch snaps behind her, whirling around to see a boy that is decidedly not her brother. She recognizes him, the butcher’s son—Benjamin, if she recalls correctly. She knows him little, has only passed but a few words with him while at the shop with her mother. He’s sixteen and tall and handsome, but it’s difficult to appreciate it now that he has intruded on her haven. She says nothing as he stares, a friendly smile on his face. She forces a small smile in return.

“I thought I’d find you here,” Benjamin jovially remarks, stepping forward.

She takes a step back and drops her basket, still shocked by his sudden appearance and worried by the fact that she hadn’t heard him coming.

The boy raises his hands to show that he’s not a threat, but it does little to settle her unease. She nervously wipes her hands on the apron pinned to her frock and fiddles with her fingers, looking down at her feet, her deep red curls falling into her face.

Benjamin continues to step forward, picking up the basket and holding it out to her. She reaches out to take it and suddenly his hand is tight on her wrist and she is backed into the trunk of a tree, his lips on hers.

He pulls back as suddenly as he pushed forward, looking at her agape face with a grin and running back off towards town. Eva stands motionless for several moments before gripping her basket tight and trotting back home. Her mother turns around to see her daughter rush into the house, noting her red cheeks and a hint of tears in her eyes.

“What’s wrong, darling?” she asks, wiping her hands on a towel and stepping toward her.

The story comes out in a breathless tumble. Her mother laughs. Eva looks up at the sound, stunned into silence once more.

“It means he likes you, Eva. That’s just how boys are,” she chuckles, turning back towards the stove. “I never thought the day would come. I always worried the boys would be scared away by your boldness. I’m sure we’ll be hearing wedding bells in a few years.”

Eva watches her at the stove for a long minute before retreating to her bedroom, sitting and looking out the window at the garden, puzzling over her mother’s words.

Her mother acted as though she should be grateful, flattered, excited. But all she can remember is the sound that twig had made when he tried to sneak up behind her and the feeling of his hand tight around her wrist. She rubs it absentmindedly.

The woods no longer feel like a such a haven; she is far more guarded and careful as she collects herbs and flowers, finding new, deeper areas in the forest to frequent. It leaves a bitterness in her heart for a long time, and she pointedly refuses advances from Benjamin from then on, running out of sight anytime they cross paths.

 ~~~ 

Eight years later, Eva finds herself in the city; the family farm had fallen on hard times and she wanted to ease the burden on her mother and father. There was nothing in her hometown for her, anyway, and she welcomed the change of scenery and the release of the ever-increasing pressure to find someone to marry.

She feels blessed to find work with a florist, grateful to be surrounded by natural beauty even among the high rises and dirty grey concrete and black asphalt. It’s difficult to make friends in such a different environment, and she’s incredibly lonely without her brother and friends from school. Burying herself in work, Eva filling her tiny apartment with plants and paintings and books until it’s cosy and warm. She brings home flowers on the verge of death and no longer able to be sold to dry and craft into circlets.

The gaps of her life are filled with long walks in the city park. It isn’t quite expansive enough to lose herself in, but enough that sometimes, especially in the quiet of night, she can almost forget that she’s in a city and trick herself into believing she’s back home, in her own forest.

She picks dandelions and buttercups since there are no wildflowers to be found; once in a while she’ll bring a loaf of bread and feed the birds while enjoying the sunshine. Some Sundays she brings a blanket and a book and reads near the duck pond.

She eventually manages to make a few friends, some young women who invite her for a drink or coffee or to the movies once or twice a week. She enrolls in some night classes at the city college, immersing herself in biology and botany while continuing to work at the florist during the daytime.

The park is between the college and her apartment building. Late after class one night she decides to cut through, despite the park technically being closed at that hour. She carries her keys between her knuckles as a precaution.

It doesn’t make a difference. All at once there is a hand in an iron vise around her wrist, and before she can scream, another over her mouth. Teeth like daggers bury themselves in her neck and she loses consciousness.

Eva awakens to find herself made into a monster, deprived forevermore of gentle sunshine.

~~~ 

Eva lies in bed a decade or so later, a kind young (mortal) man with sparkling green eyes and a charming smile lying next to her, tracing patterns into her cold skin and playing with her beautiful hair. He whispers sweet nothings in a language she’s only beginning to learn to understand. Every so often she interrupts to contentedly press a gentle kiss to his lips.

Alexei— _but call me Alex, please_ —is a recent immigrant come to the States to find opportunity that simply wasn’t there in Russia. Eva met him when she intervened in a mugging soon after he arrived, criminals wanting to take advantage from a vulnerable new transplant.

She doesn’t know why she accepts the offer to come over for tea.

Eva knows the danger of betraying the Masquerade, but she trusts Alex implicitly and plans to change him as soon as she can get permission. He gifts her a ring, a promise, Cyrillic letters stamped elegantly into the band. It becomes her most prized possession.

They are curled in bed one night, gentle piano coming from the disc in her stereo, the smell of a candle burning on the nightstand. Eva sits up against the headboard, reading one of her many collected tomes while Alex’s head rests on her thigh. His breathing has evened out to a pace where she can tell without looking that he is fast asleep. She smiles to herself, reaching down to run a hand through his soft brown locks.

A slam startles her out of her reverie and wakes her sleeping lover. The door crashes open and Eva quickly gets to her feet, but before she can react her hands are pinned at the wrists by a Kindred nearly twice her size. The grip is strong enough that it, if she were human, would leave bruises. She struggles against him and he transfers the hold to one hand—still impossibly strong—so he can slap her across the cheek, causing vitae to well in her mouth.

Another Kindred walks in, dodging the attempted blow by the mortal who is shaking sleep from his shoulders. Eva recognizes both as Tremere, but can’t place why she would know them.

The realization hits her as Maximillian Strauss walks through the door. The second Kindred grabs Alex by the throat and pins him to the wall, turning to look with a sadistic grin at the elder Tremere, who in turn is leering at Eva.

“So sorry to intrude, Miss Eva, but we’d received alarming reports that you were keeping company with a mortal. I scoffed at the rumors, of course; you’ve always been so well behaved. But when I was assured they were true, I had to come see for myself. You understand.” Strauss’ tone is cool and serene, as if he were simply relaying the weather forecast.

“It is very unfortunate that these rumors seem to be true. Would you care to explain why you have revealed your true nature to a mortal?” he runs a gently down her cheek.

Eva struggles again but realizes it’s hopeless, especially if the result would mean going up against an Elder. She’s skilled in magic but Strauss’ powers are legendary. “I mean to embrace him. I have been trying to seek an audience with the Prince to ask his permission.”

Strauss chuckles softly, this time touching her cheek with an open palm. The gesture is vaguely reminiscent of how her father would tuck her in as a child. “Childe, what on Earth would lead you to believe that you are deserving of such a privilege? And even _if_ the Prince was so gracious as to grant such permission…you should know that such a violation of the Masquerade would still be wholly unacceptable. You know the punishment for such a transgression.”

He withdraws his hand and turns toward Eva’s lover. She begins to struggle violently, screaming for Strauss to stop, begging him to spare Alex’s life.

The Elder grabs Alex by the hair and yanks his head to one side. The lackey that had been holding him backs away, grinning widely and looking toward Eva. Bloody tears streak down her face. The smell of vitae fills the room. And all at once, that smell is comingled with the smell of human blood as Strauss bites into her lover’s neck. His struggling dies into a complacent acceptance, then to unconsciousness. Strauss doesn’t stop when his legs go limp, holding him up by his hair as he takes every drop.

He allows the corpse to drop to the floor and wipes his mouth with a handkerchief pulled from his trouser pocket. “I mean to show mercy, little one. Such a crime would normally warrant the final death.”

He snaps his fingers and the unoccupied lackey goes to fetch one of Eva’s silver bowls. Strauss continues, “But I cannot risk something like this happening again, and I feel that you, perhaps, could use a more _permanent_ reminder.”

He pulls a ceremonial dagger from inside his jacket and slices her arm in order to take her blood. He takes quite a lot, and Eva’s Beast screams at her to do something, but she cannot overpower the Kindred holding her back. She’s certain that if she was mortal her wrists would be broken by now. Most goes into the bowl, but she feels sick to her stomach as he fills several vials and tucks them into his jacket for safekeeping. Strauss performs a ritual, and it is _excruciating_ , the pain enough to bring her to her knees and scream. She doesn’t know when she falls unconscious.

Eva comes to in a heap on the floor of her small haven, for a moment forgetting where she is and what had happened. But soon enough she smells blood and the memory comes rushing back. She gets to her feet and sees _him_ on the floor, rushing over and pulling his (now cold) body into his arms and wailing. She cries until she can cry no more, hungry and aching and lonely. She looks up from where she is sitting and catches an odd glimpse of herself in the mirror across the room, and the sight she sees sends even more pain coursing through her un-beating heart.

Her once crimson hair is stark white, and her normally pale skin is even paler than she ever thought possible. She looks nothing like herself. More like a monster. Nothing like the girl _he_ had loved.

It’s months before her grief dies to a manageable quantity. The grief is paired with hatred, paranoia, and need to defend and protect herself and what little she has left. She promises herself that no one will touch her again, not without her permission. She will not give anyone the power to hurt her again. The warded gloves go on. They do not come off.

~~~ 

Jasper is a bastion of safety, security, and kindness that Eva had forgotten existed in this world. He saves her life multiple times. Checks to ensure that she’s doing well. Acts as a friend. _Promises to help her with Strauss._ And while he makes mistakes that sometimes hurt, she can always find it in herself to forgive. He never intentionally hurts her, and that alone is more than she can say for most Kindred.

She surprises herself when she gifts Jasper the ring. Once it’s given, though, a.weight lifts from her shoulders. She notices its absence from her finger every evening, but the oddity of the void is amended by the knowledge that it is in safe and loving hands.

Eva visits Jasper’s haven to explore the labyrinth. It’s the first time she’s been alone with him in such a context. The air between them is heavy in a way that it hasn’t been before.

Soon enough, Eva realizes that he’s been trying to reach out. Her undead heart pangs at the way he quickly stops himself, afraid of getting hurt, and the weight of how much she needs contact hits her like a wrecking ball. She reaches out to touch him instead, holding his hands in her own. Before she can even think, she leans forward to kiss him. As their lips touch, a worry runs through her mind that he might not want this—but the thought is quickly dispelled as he kisses back. The fleeting moment feels like perfect hours.

She pulls away but soon realizes she doesn’t want to let go. Years of loneliness and sorrow had taken their toll, and closeness was everything she craved. She promises to re-enchant the gloves, promises to stay the night.

As Eva curls up in Jasper’s arms before the sun begins to rise over Los Angeles, peace descends for the first time in years.

**Author's Note:**

> Josephine, if you're reading this, I would literally die for Eva
> 
> Comments and (gentle) criticism are always welcome.


End file.
